Guests will be the very first to experience the designer showcase with an “on-site” dinner at our one-of-a-kind venue: Propcellar – a vintage furniture and décor emporium on Summer Avenue. We will give guests an exclusive preview of the interior design showcase, featuring “vignettes” crafted by the City’s most sought-after professionals. They’ll enjoy a seated dinner created by celebrated local chefs in honor of the occasion, lively entertainment, and conversation with the designers.

Friday, April 29 at 7 p.m. | VIP COCKTAIL PARTY

This lively cocktail party kicks off the public opening of the Art by Design Showcase at Propcellar. Guests will stroll through the exhibition with drinks and heavy hors d’oeuvres, enjoy some of Memphis finest musical entertainment and mingle with the designers.

It’s time for Wallpaper Wednesday, which is a new feature here on the Castles & Kings blog. Each Wednesday, I’ll be posting one of my favorite wallpapers for the world to see! This week, I’m excited about this jungle palm print, which can easily make any room a statement room!

This next adventure is a continuation of our two week New Mexican summer family vacation!

A completely different vibe from our Route 66 motel that we had stayed in the night before, we ventured to Los Poblanos Historic Inn & Organic Farm. Los Poblanos, located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, sits on 25 acres in the Rio Grande River Valley. This working family farm offers organic field-to-fork dining together with its lush formal gardens, farm animals and overflowing lavender fields. The architecture was designed in 1932 by John Gaw Meem, the “Father of Santa Fe Style.” Not only is the architecture some of New Mexico’s finest, he contracted some of New Mexico’s leading arts and craftsman of the period to create artwork here. Los Poblanos is considered one of the most magnificent historic properties of the Southwest. The setting is so serene and spectacular, I did not want to leave! We originally found out about this place as we were trying to find a teepee for the family to stay in one evening (unsuccessful as she closed her business down!). The teepee owner highly recommended Los Poblanos, and we were so glad she did.

As we arrived, our boys stumbled upon the first of many new pet friends: a lovely peacock. There were four roaming the property including Albert the albino peacock. Between the roosters crowing, turkeys gobbling, cats meowing and the smell of fresh lavender … it was a slice of heaven. Sitting in our room upon arrival was a goodie bag for each of my boys, filled with a scavenger hunt list, stickers, facts about the property, a blow up air balloon, homemade cookies, organic milk and a stuffed animal for each. Not listed on the scavanger hunt list but discovered anyway: a cat “playing” with a field mouse. Don’t think about bringing a babysitter to this place because your kids will entertain themselves and are free to wander around, play bocce ball, and even try to pick up the chickens, kittens and peacocks (if they will let you, but they won’t)! Our young boys chased and chased the four peacocks (which can fly, if you didn’t know) until Albert and Petey (a blue peacock) shed a feather. What a souvenir!

I was off to explore the architecture, gardens and the many quiet benches waiting to be filled. Butterflies were fluttering about in the plentiful gardens. There are so many things for guests to do and explore such as the farm shop, barn commons, lotus pond, saltwater swimming pool, bird watching and playing bocce ball (which my boys loved). The farm-to-table food with eggs straight from the farm helped counter act some of the richer, heavier foods we encountered upon the first few days of our road trip. I would love to come back here to spend more time, bring a good book, and just relax. But we were all too excited about the next adventure and making it to see an alpaca farm and up the old Turquoise Trail to Santa Fe!

Here’s to hoping you check out this hidden gem of the Southwest and enjoy some amazing architecture, gardens and animals in the process! Until next week, stay inspired!

One mission I have for my Castles and Kings blog is to write about life’s experiences off the beaten path – from the eyes of an interior designer. So without further delay, it’s time for the first recap of the Wallis wild west summertime road trip!

Along with my husband and two young boys (ages 5 and 7), I’ve just returned from a two week trip from Memphis to New Mexico for a fun filled summer vacation. No, we did not fly. Call us crazy. We chose to drive over 2,500 miles, and we loved each and every day (except for the last day in the car!). It was an unbelievable experience. I have to admit that before we started, I was wondering if we would even make it to the Texas state border. I was mentally prepared we’d be turning around for Memphis.

Note to my Texas Friends: Your state deserves a whole blog post all by itself! It will be coming soon.

The boys also didn’t have iPads or a DVD player in the car. We may be crazier! The boys actually got along great and communicated beautifully. As one quick example of how we passed the many hours on the road, we played old fashioned car bingo. Have you ever tried to find a cat along an interstate? There are none. There are also no stop signs or school buses along the interstate in the summertime. It was a good time to teach the boys a lifelong lesson about cheating too. Especially, when my 5 year old would call BINGO after about about five minutes! I am pretty sure all we saw outside our window were a bunch of longhorns grazing in the open fields and enormous windmills along the horizon. Before long, the boys started competing on who had more oil derricks, windmills or cows on his side of the car.

Along our journey, we would occasionally detour onto Route 66, one of the best decisions of the trip. I expected to see beautiful sights, but I was not prepared to experience the amount of Art Deco and mid century design and architecture, which has always inspired me. I think visiting Graceland as a little girl was my first real love of a little flashback, maybe it was the pink Cadillac that really hooked me!

Route 66 has countless examples of a little throw back style. Route 66 was built in 1926 and ran from Chicago to Los Angeles. It was the main path for those who migrated west. I wanted to jump out of the car and do cartwheels at some of the retro sights we saw!

The first “filling” station I encountered along my trip was this Conoco station in Shamrock, Texas. This Art Deco structure was built in 1936, and its tower is an Art Deco landmark. It closed in the 1990’s as a working station, but thankfully it was restored with a federal transportation grant. Today it is used by the Shamrock Chamber of Commerce as a tourist office.

When I was little, my dad could pull into a gas station, and a friendly man would fill up the car and check the tires and oil and probably a lot more, all while we never left the car. What a nice and relaxing way to get gas! Well, that doesn’t happen anymore, at least where I live.

Shamrock, Texas had some historic Route 66 sights, including Texas’ tallest water tower and our first dining experience on Route 66. Big Vern’s Steakhouse is a must try for dinnertime. I say dinner because I can’t imagine eating a steak for lunch, but then again, it is Texas. We were a bit hesitant about walking in, but our two huge steaks, steak fries and golden mashed potatoes did not disappoint. There was also one choice of white wine on the menu, if you want some vino with your meal. Yelp also helped out with the decision.

So the next day we drove Route 66 to the town of Tucumcari, New Mexico. It is retro central! So much so that we called and cancelled our Albuquerque hotel and chose to stay in the Historic Route 66 Motel. After cruising around the town, my husband asked if I really wanted to cancel our hotel in Albuquerque for a motel in Tumcumcari. My response: “I promise.”

This place is so interesting! It brought back memories of Palm Springs or maybe Miami South Beach (in a retro sense). Upon entering the lobby, I was looking around for a rotary dial telephone, but was not successful. What we finally found was a baby kitten, and my Butler (age 5) yelled BINGO.

The movie crew for The Lucky Man (starring young actor Jesse James) was staying at our motel, and they were using these two old cars in the movie. The film is about a preacher’s kid who gets side railed a bit. It will be released in 2016. My kids entertained the crew by catching all of the croaking bullfrogs on site at the motel. For some reason I keep accidentally typing hotel, but go back to change it to motel. It was the best $48.00 (including tax) we spent on a motel – ever.

And another option for motels here in Tucumcari is The Blue Swallow Motel. I love that the sign reads “100% refrigerated air, vacancy and TV”. Look at the fun Art Deco Branding! That blue mailbox is waiting for the next postcard to be returned to sender. Can you tell I’m an Elvis fan? And those motel chairs are painted so perfectly and bright.

I always try to make time in life for the unexpected. This is where I get inspired. If we had kept on driving to make it to our next destination, I would have never encountered this experience.

– Jenna

Jenna Wallis is available for interior design services in Memphis, Tennessee and beyond. You can email her today by CLICKING HERE.